November Revolution
The November Revolution (29 October 1918-11 August 1919) refers to the revolution in Germany that overthrew the German Empire and led to the creation of the democratic Weimar Republic. The revolution originated as a mutiny of German sailors when Admiral Franz von Hipper ordered them to engage the British Royal Navy in a suicidal mission; German soldiers began to mutiny, and fighting broke out across the country as the Social Democratic Party of Germany seized power. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated on 9 November 1918, and Germany signed an armistice with the Triple Entente on 11 November to end World War I, which was creating severe economic and political issues in the country. For the rest of 1918 and much of 1919, the newly-declared "Weimar Republic" had to deal with Bolshevik-inspired communist insurrections, including the uprising of the Spartacus League and the creation of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The republic's Reichswehr military was sent to crush the uprisings, but one of the most effective government forces was the Freikorps, a loose association of anti-communist and German nationalist paramilitary groups. The Freikorps helped in putting down the communist uprisings, although they did so with maximum brutality; they massacred civilians in communist areas and persecuted Jews and other minorities. The uprisings had abated by 1919, but street clashes between far-right political supporters and socialists would continue for years. Ultimately, the fallout from the revolution would lead to the rise of the Nazi Party. Background Under the leadership of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff, Germany sought to establish German dominance in Europe through military victory. Germany's defeat of Russia, confirmed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, was followed by a series of offensives on the Western Front. These failed to win the war, however, and from August the Germans were driven into retreat, first to the Hindenburg Line and then beyond. Germany's allies, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary, successively sought armistice agreements to exit the war. Revolution On 29 September, Germany's military leaders, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, told the German civilian government that it must seek an immediate armistice. This was a brutal shock to the politicians who, like the German people, had been kept in the dark about the true military situation. To the east, German armies had occupied large areas of the former Russian Empire, and to the west they were still fighting in France and Belgium. But with Allied forces breaking through the Hindenburg Line, Germany's military leadership feared that the Western Front defenses were about to collapse. They also knew that their southern flank had become indefensible. Germany had no spare soldiers to transfer to the Balkans following the defeat of Bulgaria or to prop up Austria-Hungary. Search for an exit Certain that the strategic situation was hopeless, the German Supreme Command sought to escape the consequences of total military defeat by luring the Allies into an armistice. Their main hope lay in the US president Woodrow Wilson, who in January 1918 had made an idealistic fourteen-point declaration of war aims. The Fourteen Points seemed to provide the ground for a peace deal that would leave German military forces intact, the Kaiser on his throne, and German territory free of foreign occupation. Recognizing Wilson's predilection for democracy, the German leaders' first move was to appoint a new chancellor, the moderate conservative Prince Max von Baden, as head of a liberal civilian government. For the first time in its history, the German government was representative of the majority in the Reichstag, including members from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and from Zentrum, the Catholic party. On 4 October, Prince Max sent a note to President Wilson requesting an armistice and accepting the Fourteen Points as the basis for negotiations. Wilson initially responded favorably to the German proposal, only requesting that the Germans withdraw their armies from occupied territory as a prelude to an armistice. But a hostile reaction from other Allied leaders and military commanders - including American General John J. Pershing - as well as public opinion in the United States soon forced Wilson to stiffen his position. On 10 October, a German U-boat sank the Irish ferry Leinster, killing over 500 people. Wilson demanded an immediate end to submarine warfare plus real progress toward democracy in Germany. Prince Max complied, calling off the U-boats and pushing through reforms to make Germany a constitutional monarchy. On 23 October, Wilson made it clear that to obtain an armistice Germany would have to surrender and the Kaiser would have to be removed. Wilson handed over the task of formulating the precise terms of an armistice to the Allied commanders. German U-turn By this time, the German armies had shown they were able to fight on and the prospect of their collapse receded. Hindenburg and Ludendorff reversed their support for an armistice, expressing outrage at Allied terms. On 24 October, ignoring the government, they ordered the German armies to fight to the death. Two days later, after a row with the Kaiser, Ludendorff was replaced by General Wilhelm Groener. Hindenburg remained at his post. Meanwhile, the German people were thrown into confusion by the prospect of defeat. The liberalization of Germany under Prince Max included the release of political prisoners and the introduction of freedom of speech. Racked by hunger and shortages, German cities seethed with unrest. The left-wing Independent Social Democratic Party, which had deputies in the Reichstag and links with radical union representatives in factories, advocated the overthrow of the Kaiser. Released from prison in October, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, leaders of the far-left Spartacus League, agitated for a revolutionary upheaval to found a socialist state. Naval mutiny On 28 October, the German Admiralty ordered the High Seas Fleet at Wilhelmshaven to put out to sea for a last encounter with the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. Blockaded in port for most of the war, poorly fed, and alienated by arrogant officers, German sailors were in no mood for a death-or-glory sortie. They refused to sail. The mutiny spread to the port city of Kiel, which was taken over by revolutionary sailors' councils, modeled on the Russian soviets. Through the first week in November, the uprising spread. Workers', soldiers', and sailors' councils took control of cities across Germany. In Munich, Independent Socialists led by Kurt Eisner declared Bavaria a republic. In army units in Germany, officers were disarmed by soldiers and stripped of their insignia. On the Western Front, discipline held and German troops continued fighting. Germany becomes a republic On the night of 7 November, a German delegation traveled through Allied lines for face-to-face armistice negotiations. Before agreement was reached, however, the German Empire ceased to exist. On 9 November, as revolutionary upheaval reached Berlin, Prince Max handled the chancelorship to moderate Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert. Meanwhile, another Social Democrat, Philipp Scheidemann, on his own initiative declared Germany a republic. Ebert formed a revolutionary government of People's Commissars, drawn from the Social Democrats and Independent Socialists. Kaiser Wilhelm, at the German military headquarters at Spa in Belgium, was informed by Groener that the army would not fight or keep him on the throne. He fled across the border into exile in the neutral Netherlands. Aftermath After the war, a liberal democratic government came to power in Germany but it was undermined by right-wing militarists. After the Armistice, efforts to turn Germany into a revolutionary socialist state failed. An uprising in Berlin led by the Spartacists was suppressed in January 1919. Germany emerged as the center-left Weimar Republic. The Treaty of Versailles was signed by German delegates under duress in June 1919. Right-wing militarists, including Hindenburg and Ludendorff, created the myth that the German army had lost due to a "stab in the back" by Jews and socialist subversives. Category:Revolutions Category:World War I